"Faulty software can cost lives, cause injury, or economic damage. Write an essay to investigate the question, under which circumstances a software company should be liable for the damage caused. Use an example where software failures are potentially dangerous, such as that of the Prius's brake software. Discuss the difference between strict and negligent liability and comment on the social and economic impact stricter liability practices for software could have."
It is remarkable, that nowadays, we have complex software systems everywhere. We have them in our dishwashers, and in our wristwatches, though they are not quite so mission-critical. But sometimes, the human factor can be devastating, because of the negligence or the strict liability who dominates, and often devastating implications not only for the man himself, but can affect the whole economy of a country, succeeding or at least trying to succeed, ignoring the institutions, rules and contract. A highly representative example of the failure of human factors in an attempt to “progress” with the help of a software, is Ariane 5 explosion, that was the cause of a huge economic gap.
It took the European Space Agency 10 years and $7 billion to produce Ariane 5, a giant rocket capable of hurling a pair of three-ton satellites into orbit with each launch. It intended to give Europe overwhelming supremacy in the commercial space business. There was no risk of lightning since the strength of the electric field in the spray was negligible. Perhaps, one problem, leading the explosion, was the visibility. The countdown, which also comprises the filling of the core stage, went smoothly until the first seven minutes when the launch was put on hold since the visibility criteria ...
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... at what determines the law and contracts, addressing scientists. Lastly, let us continue our efforts to improve our world, even with technological wonders.
Works Cited
ARIANE 5 / Flight 501 Failure / Prof. J. L. LIONS / Paris, 19 July 1996
http://sspg1.bnsc.rl.ac.uk/Share/ISTP/ariane5r.htm
A Bug and a Crash / by James Gleick
http://www.around.com/ariane.html
Hardware and Software Liability / by Tim Tompkins / 6 December 2000
http://www.cs.rpi.edu/academics/courses/fall00/ethics/papers/tompkt.html
Software liability laws: a dangerous solution / Chase Venters / September 5, 2007
http://lwn.net/Articles/247933/
SOFTWARE LIABILITY / Cem Kaner, J.D., Ph.D. / 1997
http://www.badsoftware.com/theories.htm
ARIANE 5 / Flight 501 Failure / Prof. J. L. LIONS / Paris, 19 July 1996
http://sunnyday.mit.edu/accidents/Ariane5accidentreport.html
This report provides a summary of the National Transportation Safety Boards Report on the accident involving a Douglas DC-8-63, N827AX, operated by ABX Air Inc. (Airborne Express). The description provides a brief synopsis of accident flight. The discussion is an examination of the history of the flight and discussion on those findings I found were most causal to the accident that were covered by the National Transportation Safety Board during their investigation. The report also explores those probable causes that attributed to the accident and action provided by the National Transportation Safety board in the prevention of similar mishaps.
Although the flight was scheduled to depart from JFK Airport at about 7:00 p.m., it was delayed due to a disabled piece of ground equipment and concerns about a suspected passenger mismatch with baggage. The airplane took off at 8:18 p.m., shortly at 8:25 p.m., Boston air route traffic control center (ARTCC) instructed the pilots to climb and maintain an altitude of 19,000 feet and then lower down to 15,000 feet. However, at 8:26 p.m., Boston ARTCC amended TWA flight 800's altitude clearance, advising the pilots to maintain an altitude of 13,000 feet. At 8:29 p.m., the captain stated, "Look at that crazy fuel flow indicator there on number four... see that?" One minute later Boston ARTCC advised them to climb and maintain 15,000 feet to which the pilot replied: “Climb thrust”. After an extremely loud and quick sound, the cockpit voice recorder stopped recording at 8:31 p.m. At that moment, the crew of an Eastwind Airlines Boeing 737 flying nearby reported an explosion in the sky. TWA Flight 800 aircraft had broken up and crashed into the sea, 8 miles south of East Moriches, killing all on board. (1,2)
This report is on the Crossair flight 3597 crash which happens at Zurich airport on 24th November 2001. Analysis of Crossair flight 3597 will be covered, which includes details such as facts of Crossair flight 3597 crash, and the three contributing factors involved in the air accident. The three contributing factors are mainly Crossair, pilot error and communications with air traffic controllers.
It was the afternoon of July 25, 2000. One hundred passengers, most of them German, boarded the Concorde Air France Flight 4590. This was a trip of a lifetime for many people, as Concorde was restricted to the wealthy class of people. The excitement in people was cut short by the unfortunate delay in flight, because of maintenance in one of its engines. The passengers boarded the plane a couple of hours after the scheduled time. Finally, it was cleared for taxi on runway 26-Right. The pilots lined the aircraft parallel to the runway. A tragic accident, however, was about to befall.
The above mentioned airplane was a planned commercial passenger flight that took off from LaGuardia Airport, New York destined for Charlotte Douglas Airport in North Carolina on January 15, 2009. Six minutes after takeoff, the airplane was successfully abandoned in Hudson River after striking multiple birds during its initial climb out. The crew reported by radio two minutes after takeoff at an altitude of 3,200 feet, the Airbus experienced multiple bird strikes. The result of this multiple bird strikes, which occurred in northeast of George Washington Bridge was compressor stalls as well as loss of thrust in both engines. The Airbus was ditched in Hudson River after the aircrew discovered that they would not reach any airfield and turned southward. Fortunately, all the 155 passengers on board survived the accident though the Airbus was partly submerged and sinking slowly.
On February 24, 1989, United Airlines flight 811 was en route to Sydney, Australia from Honolulu, Hawaii. They later experienced decompression due to the cargo door failure in front aft during flight. Flight 811 made successful emergency landing at Honolulu with nine passengers missing out of 337 passenger aboard. The cargo door that was ejected on Flight 811 damaged engines 3 and 4, which led to crew to turn back to Honolulu.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the failure of the flightcrew to monitor the flight instrument during the final 4 minutes of flight, and to detect an unexpected descent soon enough to prevent impact with the ground. Preoccupation with a malfunction of the nose landing gear position indicating system distracted the crew's attention from the instruments and allowed the descent to go unnoticed.
Introduction Plane crashes occur for a number of reasons. There seems to be a consensus with the general public that flying is dangerous, engines fail and planes crash. That is true sometimes, although the majority of plane crashes occur largely due to a combination of human error and mechanical failure. In many aviation accidents mechanical failure has been a contributing factor. It is impossible, however, to blame plane crashes on one reason, since events leading up to an accident are so varied.
Computers; they are a part of or in millions of homes; they are an intricate part of just about every if not all successful businesses, the government, and the military. Computers have become common place in today’s society and the lives of the people who live in it. They have crossed every national, racial, cultural, educational, and financial barrier, which consequently ushered in the information age. A computer is a programmable electronic device that can store, retrieve and process data, and they come in all shapes, and sizes. They can be used for and in just about anything. As stated before, they are used in just about every aspect of modern society. They are so fundamental to modern society that it would be disastrous to society without them. As stated before, there are many areas in modern society that are run by computers. They play an intricate part of millions of homes in the world. Office workers in business, government and the military may use them to write letters, keep rosters, create budgets, find information, manage projects, communicate with workers, and so on. They are used in education, medicine, music, law enforcement, and unfortunately crime. Because computers have become such a part of the world and how it operates, there is a tremendous responsibility for those who are in control of these computers and the vital information that they carry, to manage and protect them properly. This is management and protection is vital because any loss or damage could be disastrous for the affected entity. For example, a mistake or intentional alteration of a personal credit file could affect ones ability to buy a car or home, or can lead to legal actions against the affected person until the mistake or intentional alteration has been corrected. Therefore, with the advent of computers in the information age, and all of the intentional and unintentional violations against them, comes the need to safeguard them and the information they carry with strong systems and policies of computer security.
Simmon, David A. (1998). Boeing 757 CFIT Accident at Cali, Columbia, Becomes Focus of Lessons Learned. Flight Safety Digest.
After the accident, a full-scale investigation was launched by the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). It concluded that the accident was caused by metal fatigue exacerbated by crevice corrosion, the corrosion is exacerbated by the salt water and the age of the aircraft was already 19 years old as the plane operated in a salt water environment.
says that the crash dummies and high altitude balloons were embelished over the decades into false
has had a great affect on the software industry. It is a problem that can only
Since the beginning of time, humans have thought and made many inventions. Repeatedly the newer one is better than the older. Our minds have created many remarkable things, however the best invention we ever created is the computer. computers are constantly growing and becoming better every day. Every day computers are capable of doing new things. Even though computers have helped us a lot in our daily lives, many jobs have been lost because of it, now the computer can do all of the things a man can do in seconds! Everything in the world relies on computers and if a universal threat happens in which all computers just malfunction then we are doomed. Computers need to be programmed to be able to work or else it would just be a useless chunk of metal. And we humans need tools to be able to live; we program the computer and it could do a lot of necessary functions that have to be done. It is like a mutual effect between us and he computer (s01821169 1).
Aviation Accident Data 2006. Annual Review NTSB/ARG-10/01, pp. 38-50. Retrieved Feburary 6, 2011, from http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/2010/ARG1001.pdf